Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Nameirakpam Loken on Tuesday said that hardly 15-16 candidates from the BJP may turn up as MLAs by winning the coming state legislative assembly election, contrary to the state BJP’s bold claims that over 40 BJP candidates will win.
Loken was speaking to the media at state Congress Bhavan located at BT Road, Imphal on Tuesday. He clarified that some local newspapers wrongly quoted him to be saying that not more than 15 Congress candidates will become MLAs in the coming state legislative assembly election.
The MPCC president further said only 21 BJP candidates were elected in the 2017 state legislative assembly election. Among the 21 MLAs, three of them tendered their resignation from the party as they were not satisfied with the BJP.
“If the MLAs of BJP are not satisfied with the party, then how can they give satisfaction to the people of Manipur?” he questioned.
Loken further said that there are 26 MLAs of BJP in total and six MLAs of the total are from the hill districts and the remaining 20 MLAs are from valley assembly constituencies.
Among the 20 candidates of valley districts, more than 11 may not win the coming election and it is confirmed. He asked the BJP party to point out from which assembly constituency the 20 candidates are going to win in the coming election.
The BJP is under the false impression that they are going to win with more than 40 seats, he said. “In hill districts, the BJP can interfere in only five assembly constituencies, that too not under the influence of the party’s activity but with some other hidden agendas,” he said. Pointing out an example, he questioned why the sitting MLA of Chandel announced to contest from Tengnoupal assembly constituency by leaving his own assembly constituency from where he was elected.
“I will not disclose before the media under what pressure he decided to contest the coming election from another assembly constituency, and it is an open secret,” he said.
The BJP has been shouting that the Congress party is not welcomed in the hill districts; however, in the last election, eight were elected as MLAs from hill districts where only three BJP candidates were elected. At present, the misunderstandings between the Congress party and hill districts have been cleared and there is a better understanding, he added.
“In the last nearly 5 years, what contributions were made for the state by the present BJP government other than UJJWALA yojana and health card? Most of the projects that were inaugurated by the Prime Minister were not initiated by the present government but by the then Congress government,” he further said.
Loken said the trend of election is completely different from the past election and he expressed confidence that hardly 15-16 BJP candidates may win in the coming election.
